Anyone who votes on October 29 solely on the basis of what the defense parties say they will do must choose CDA or NSC. That is, if the ‘Defense Yardstick’ of retired general Hans Damen is taken as a guideline. This former professional soldier has been studying election manifestos for years and then rates political parties based on the criteria that he would prioritize as Minister of Defense – a position that he says he does not aspire to at all.
Some themes emerged this year, such as the importance of defending NATO territory. Other topics were dictated by Damen’s personal preferences, who states: “Of course it’s as subjective as the nits.”
In the ‘Defense Metric’ of former general Hans Damen, scores are assigned based on twenty criteria. A resounding yes (green check mark) yields two points, a ‘no’ (red cross) means zero points. If the party takes a half-hearted position, they score one point (blue circle).
Illustration Hans Damen
The measuring stick also provides an unambiguous and sometimes surprising picture. It should not be surprising that CDA and VVD score well (32 and 31 points respectively), but the top ranking of D66 (31 points) is striking, which also applies to the low ranking of the PVV (6 points). Damen is satisfied with this: “The measuring stick is intended to make you look beyond ‘it is for the army’ or ‘it is against the arms race.”
After Damen published the first version on LinkedIn, the Democrats came forward with comments. “The problem was that D66 has both an election and implementation program,” Damen explains. A further explanation from the party about its defense positions yielded extra points, meaning D66 finished in shared second place.
NATO standard
General out of service Hans Damen.
Photo by Dana
D66 was not the only party with complaints, but the former general did not accept all the criticism: “Volt has a focus on defense [een Europees leger en een Europese nucleaire afschrikkingsmacht, red.]but in my count it doesn’t score.” The PVV announced that it did support the NATO standard of 3.5 percent of GDP, but did not receive any points from Damen. “If you are in favor of the NATO standard, write that down in your party manifesto.”
The responses show that Damen’s hobby project is taken seriously, both “in the defense world”, as he describes it himself, and in The Hague. CDA defense spokesman Derk Boswijk was satisfied with the outcome. “So vote” (two defense employees at the bottom of the CDA electoral list), Boswijk wrote in a response on LinkedIn.
For the first time since the fall of the Berlin Wall, defense is again an important election issue. “Unfortunately, yes,” says Damen. The war in Ukraine and the increased Russian threat played a major role in drawing up the benchmark criteria. This also applies to the experiences that the off-duty general continues to gain as a discussion leader during evaluations of exercises in Romania, Poland and the Baltic States.
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Obvious
The extent to which parties give priority to ‘the first main task’ of the armed forces (the defense of the Netherlands and NATO territory) is therefore an obvious assessment criterion, on which almost all parties score more or less well, except the Party for the Animals and Think. This also applies to military support for Ukraine: only FVD, Denk and SP receive a ‘no’ for this.
Some criteria seem less obvious. For example, Damen is in favor of conscription according to the ‘Swedish model’, whereby it is in principle mandatory to actually serve, but the armed forces are filled with volunteers as much as possible. And although Damen uses ‘Strengthening the EU defense industry’ as a criterion, he is not in favor of a European army: as far as he is concerned, NATO should remain the ‘base’ of collective defense. That position is not clearly endorsed by D66 and Volt.
Damen did not give GroenLinks-PvdA the full two points, but only one point for ‘NATO standard’
When the general was looking through the programs, he came across the plan to set up a European nuclear deterrent force (VVD, Volt), independent of the US. “I hadn’t thought of that yet, but it seemed like a very good idea.” Thus, “European nuclear umbrella” ended up in the yardstick.
Last Friday, the Central Planning Bureau (CPB) presented the so-called ‘calculation’ of the election manifestos. It showed that GroenLinks-PvdA is only investing extra in defense until 2025 and has not yet reserved any money for afterwards – as a result of which the party will not achieve the NATO standard of 3.5 percent in 2035. During the first major election debate, faction leader Frans Timmermans said that the party wants to commit to this if other countries follow suit. It earned him reproaches from VVD and CDA. “There is an outstanding bill of 11 billion,” said CDA leader Henri Bontenbal.
Hans Damen did not give GroenLinks-PvdA the full two points, but only one point for “NATO standard”. That score is based on what he believes is the election manifesto, not on the CPB calculation, he says: “I have completed a financial education, but understanding the CPB models is beyond me.”
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